This political cartoon takes the well know trojan horse story we see early in the Odyssey and uses its idea to explain the authors feelings towards Obamacare and socialized medicine. From the authors prospective, Obamaare is just a cover to bringing, from his prospective, dangerous socialized medicine in to the United States, much like the tail of Odysseus's plan and action to build a similar trojan horse to breach Troy. It is interesting to me to see how the story that for the Greeks reflected wisdom and cunning now be a much more simple joke or to try to persuade ones political beliefs.
The Trojan Horse is, of course, the most famous of all Trojan War stories connected to Odysseus. Interestingly, the full story is told neither in the Iliad nor in the Odyssey, but 700 years later in Vergil's Aeneid.
ReplyDeleteThe Odyssey does tell bits and pieces of it, though. It appears in Helen's apologetic account in book 4, and Odysseus asks the Phaeacian bard Demodocus to sing about the Trojan Horse in book 9, just before he finally reveals his identity.
By the way, it would be nice to have some source and date information because knowing the context helps us, of course, in interpreting the drawing. The cartoon, entitled "The truth about ObamaCare", is is by political cartoonist Henry Payne, who has his own blog: http://henrypayne.com/. It was made for the Friday Funnies and appeared first July 24, 2009, see this url: http://reason.com/archives/2009/07/24/friday-funnies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1cXMCS-TIE
ReplyDeleteThis is a scene from south park season 6, the episode "Child Abduction is not funny". Although this episode does not relate to The Odyssey as a whole, this clips certainly does. It's a play on the famous story of the Trojan Horse that Meneleus reveals the story of in book 4. It is a great clip because for one it's just really funny, but it also shows how a story like this one has stayed so famous over time. This clip implies that the story of the Trojan horse is so very well known, and even if you haven't read the Odyssey the story is something you've heard. That's where the true humor comes from is taking the story of the Trojan Horse and making it's outcome unexpected and not what you are used to.